1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a suspension of a vehicle, and more particularly to a suspension of a vehicle that can form a stable camber angle even at the time when the vehicle bumps and rebounds as well as when it rolls.
2. Brief Description of the Prior Art
In general, a camber is an angle that forms between a center line of wheels and a vertical line about road surface. The camber prevents the bottom part of front wheels from being stretched by weight and also the wheels from being loosened while a vehicle is running. Especially, camber also plays a role in facilitating an easy manipulation of a steering wheel along with an inclination angle of a kingpin.
However, camber is not always constant while the vehicle is running, but changes in angle according to the running state of the vehicle, mainly depending on types of selected suspensions. The different types of changes are described in accordance with a few types of suspensions.
First of all, FIG. 1 illustrates a conventional trailing arm type or a double wishbone type of a suspension that has the similar length of upper and lower arms. As shown in FIG. 1, it is possible to design a camber of wheels that can make the vertical motions with almost no change in the camber angle, close to 0 degree, even when the vehicle bumps and rebounds. However, there will be a great change in the camber angle as the vehicle rolls as shown in FIG. 2, thereby deteriorating contact capability of a tire tread which weakens cornering force.
Next, a conventional swing arm type or a double wishbone type of a suspension which has different length upper and lower arms, can be designed to keep changes in the camber of wheels 102 close to 0 when the vehicle rolls as shown in FIG. 4. Therefore, it is possible to sufficiently secure the ground contact capability of the tire tread onto the road surface. On the other hand, when the vehicle bumps and rebounds, there is a change in the camber which deteriorates straight running stability of the vehicle.
As described above, there is a problem in conventional suspensions in that conventional suspensions can optimally perform only either when bumping and rebounding or when rolling. The conventional suspension has had no alternative but bear the problem of deteriorating in performance for one of the aforementioned motions of the vehicle because the suspension has been designed for a vehicle operation of either when the vehicle runs straight or when the vehicle turns.
The present invention provides a camber control suspension of a vehicle that can provide optimum geometry during straight running or a turning state of the vehicle, thereby not only achieving stable contact of the tires when the vehicle is straight running with bumping/rebounding motions, but also forming sufficient ground contact of the tires for strong cornering forces when the vehicle is turning during rolling motion.
The present invention provides a camber control suspension comprising:
two roll detecting links respectively connected to a front part of a wheel rotational center at a knuckle of a left wheel and to a rear part of the wheel rotational center at a knuckle of a right wheel and forming a L shape by being bent at a position where the links cross with a vertical line passing through the wheel rotational center;
a rotary support bracket supporting a vehicle body and guiding rotations of the two roll detecting links;
a differential gear unit having bevel gears installed at each end of the two roll detecting links for a pair of side gears;
a worm gear formed at a differential gear case of the differential gear unit;
a camber control rack formed with a gear meshed to the worm gear and horizontally installed with a vehicle axle to make a horizontal linear motion;
camber control links connecting both sides of the camber control rack to both wheel knuckles; and
lower links supporting a lower side of the wheel rotational center of the knuckles against a frame.